• The Cuyahoga Valley Initiative (CVI) created a roadmap to reinvent the river valley by attracting environmentally minded industry. Leading the way is CLEERTEC’s green bulkhead project, an environmental restoration project that would improve the conditions for aquatic life in the industrial shipping channel of the lower Cuyahoga River. Get an update here.

• Paul Oyaski, director of Cuyahoga County’s Department of Development and member of the county’s energy task force studying wind power on Lake Erie, emailed this photo from his family’s summer vacation in Canada. It’s of Erie Shores Wind Farm, which is 66 turbines powering thousands of homes in southern Ontario. They cost about $2.5 million each and were part of a government-initiated renewable energy strategy.

• Lou Bleier wonders why a German company was hired to work on the Lake Erie Wind Turbine Project. “I'm not against using global resources,” he writes, “however, with the dollar dropping and the Euro rising, I find it hard to believe it’s a good value." This Texas company successfully completed an off-shore installation of seven wind turbines in the Irish Sea in 2003, he adds. "I think that model would be perfect for a stage one in Lake Erie."
• The National Surface Transportation and Revenue Study Commission released its report to Congress last week.
  
  

The future of the planet depends on green cities. And green cities depend on people taking up cool ideas like the Cuyahoga Valley Initiative (CVI). CVI is laying the groundwork for environmental restoration as a cottage green industry in Northeast Ohio.

Leaders of the initiative, such as Jim White of CLEERTEC, note that CVI has the potential to solve the quandary of designing cities in balance with nature. The Michigan Land Use Institute recently reported on White’s effort to lead a pilot green bulkhead project that will restore aquatic habitat, reduce stormwater runoff, and could make Cleveland the center of a billion dollar industry. Read more.

A sustainable business invents solutions to our current environmental problems – inventiveness that’s driven by a profit motive and an ability to make urban life more enjoyable. It’s a powerful concept, one that’s being adopted by some of the world’s largest companies.

For example, Wal-Mart recently started reducing waste in its supply chain, while purchasing and generating renewable energy because it has a positive impact on its bottom line. Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and Swiss Re—financial giants all—stepped up efforts to integrate climate change into their lending policies, investment portfolios, or overall strategy, Joel Makower writes in GreenBiz.com.

Here at home, we’re leading the way on a number of sustainability efforts. One, the Cuyahoga Valley Initiative (CVI), created a roadmap to reinvent the river valley by attracting environmentally minded industry.

“The natural systems of the Valley should influence how buildings and infrastructure are restored, designed and constructed using ecological design and green building practices,” CuyahogaValley.net states.

In the new paradigm, industry restores the balance between human civilization and natural systems like the Cuyahoga River corridor. Nonprofit groups like CLEERTEC and CVI are laying the groundwork by looking at environmental restoration as business opportunity.

In the 10 years since Congress created the Ohio & Erie Canal National Heritage Canalway, progress has been breathtaking. Of the 101 miles included in the corridor, 73 miles of the towpath are complete. There is a national scenic byway along the length of the canal between Cleveland and New Philadelphia.

Perhaps most breathtaking is the pace of economic development this new canal era has ushered in. Since 1998, $8.5 million in federal money has flowed to this region. That federal support has in turn spurred $274 million in other public and private spending, an enviable multiplier effect by almost any measure. The heritage canalway has been cited across the country for its accomplishments.

There is much physical work to be done, mostly at the northern and southern ends of the canalway. Most of Tuscarawas County has yet to see substantial trail work, delays due as much to bureaucratic slumber as to the rural, privately owned nature of the towpath. But that area now stands poised for rapid towpath development, with key components such as a bridge over Interstate 77 between Bolivar and Zoar.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo District will be hosting a Public Information Meeting to discuss the purpose and status of the Cleveland Harbor Dredged Material Management Plan.  Documents on the plan can be found at the Buffalo District Cleveland Harbor website.

Meeting information at http://planning.co.cuyahoga.oh.us/about/meetings.html

"The Natural Flats" is a new project by Cleveland Public Art and artist Don Harvey, designed to build awareness of the green spaces in the Flats and encourage their enjoyment and preservation.

Join in the unfolding of a new tour guide, "The Natural Flats: A Field Guide to Habitat in Unexpected Places" and an exhibition of photographs of the natural Flats by Don Harvey.

The lower Cuyahoga Valley helped Greater Cleveland become one of the most important industrial centers in the world. The Cuyahoga Valley Initiative (CVI) is a large-scale vision to restore the economy, river, culture, and community of the Cuyahoga Valley, especially in the 75-square miles in and surrounding the ship channel.

In 2004, The Cuyahoga County Planning Commission and its many partners and collaborators embarked on a historic effort to transform a valley whose image reflects its industrial past. Sustainability is one of the guiding principles at work in the CVI project. For example, one of the pilot projects developed by world-renowned sustainability think tank Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and their local partner Entrepreneurs for Sustainability calls for a Regenerative Development Zone for the Tre-Gate area near Tremont.

It could be a laboratory for ecological restoration and fresh ways of doing business... to demonstrate ways to weave industry and nature together, consolidate industrial facilities, assemble parcels to make land available for development, return buried watercourses to the earth's surface, test ways for businesses to share resources, develop green buildings, create new pollution-mitigation and industrial clean-up businesses, and demonstrate clean energy technologies and systems, according to RMI.

This eco-industrial park or industrial symbiosis caught the interest of local business, RMI adds. It could be a national model for lean manufacturing and spur economic development in the valley.

Resources:

You are invited to attend a presentation and discussion of important progress in the Cuyahoga Valley Initiative (CVI). It will conclude Rocky Mountain Institute's (RMI) work on CVI and describe the next steps to success as CVI begins to run on its own legs.

CVI is a large-scale vision to restore the economy, river, culture, and community of the Cuyahoga Valley, especially in the area of the ship channel. In April 2004, with the guidance of local leaders, RMI developed a strategy and set of actions that would help attain this envisioned revitalization. For the past year and a half, RMI pursued the second phase of its work: implementation of some of the recommendations from Phase I.

On Thursday, June 1, RMI and representatives from various agencies and organizations in the community will present their progress on various projects relating to water quality (storm water and river restoration), green industrial buildings, and economic development that turns waste into revenue. For certain projects, memoranda of understanding promising future action will be signed at this event. We invite you to hear about exciting new ideas and propositions, engage the presenters in discussion, and serve as public witnesses and future collaborators in these efforts.

CSU Masters of Urban Planning, Design, and Development Capstone Class will be presenting their final project, “Reclaiming an Urban Valley—The Lower Big Creek Greenway Initiative”.

Throughout this spring semester, these students have researched and analyzed a wealth of concerns within the Lower Big Creek Valley, from the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo to the Cuyahoga Towpath Trail. See four redevelopment scenarios with accompanying plans.

Presentations followed by a reception. Course instructors are Mr. James Kastelic (Cleveland Metroparks) and Professor Robert Simons (CSU). Open to the public.